Posted on 12/04/2018 8:22:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I believe a letter from the Rome to Pontius Pilate commending him for his handling of the Jesus affair also exists.
That was not intended.
Some Jewish scholars point out, accurately I believe, that the earliest versions of Josephus’ works do not have any reference to Jesus, but later versions do. So the reference to Jesus was apparently inserted later. Also, Josephus was not a historian, he was a paid propagandist for the Roman Emperor Flavian and lived in Rome.
As a Christian, it is not essential to my faith that there is some proven historical record of Jesus.
Contrary to popular thought Islam only preserved certain things from Classical Civilization - things that intrigued or otherwise interested various muslim Arabs. All else they destroyed.
When you read that such and such classical writer’s works are lost, thank a muslim. When you read about fabulous machines in Classical writings that no longer exist, thank a muslim. When you think of the horrors of chattel slavery (people as disposable property), than a muslim.
You ar right, the works weren’t lost, they were just forgotten and ignored.
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No! the muslims destroyed all that thy had no use for - “if it is not in the koran, it is anathema and must be destroyed; if it is in the koran, it is superfluous and must be destroyed.”
Just playing off Your
Screen Name,,
Interesting,,,,
Great Preaching FRiend!
Yes ,Time is Short.
I know. I get that a lot. My own fault.
Take two aspirin,
Call Me in the morning!
.
Remember,
Marxists Hate Aspirin,
It’s White
and it Works!
Averroes was absolutely a Muslim scholar who commented on
Aristotle and those commentaries were translated into Latin and reintroduced the west to Aristotle. Christian scholars like Aquinas disagreed with the logic and conclusions made he Averroes but they respected him. This is all undisputed history, Aquinas himself makes it all clear in his master work Summa Theoligica. There was a time a thousand years ago when Muslims (particularly in Spain) did in fact have intellectual curiosity. That was stifled shortly after Averroes worked but that doesnt make him go away.
It should be noticed that Averroes was a contemporary of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who also championed Aristotle. This was at the end of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, so the relatively open intellectual curiosity of Islam at this time wasn’t in a vacuum.
Most of the known history written by Polybius and many others was destroyed - the list of known destroyed works by muslims would fill a library ... we have only fragments and references remaining.
There is no mention of Mohamed in contemporary history, either. Nor is there any contemporary historical record of Moses, or of David or of Solomon. All were only noticed by their neighbors when their followers, as much as a generation after their deaths, expanded enough to impinge on peoples outside their range of action in their lifetimes.
Flavius Josephus does write about a Jewish religious leader whom he calls the Teacher, but although the Christians identify this figure with Jesus, there were other Teachers in Judea at the time, and Josephus does not name him. Moreover, Josephus was writing about 40 years after Jesus’s death, so I am not sure this could be called a contemporary reference.
Regarding Polybius, I am not very familiar with his work. I have a passing familiarity with the histories by Herodotus but that's a couple centuries prior to Polybius. Also some familiarity with Josephus' histories too but that's a couple centuries after Polybius. Maybe something I need to explore.
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